A number of mouth guards currently exist, in the art, for protecting the teeth and for reducing the chance of shock, concussions, and other injuries. These prior art mouth guards are also known to place the lower jaw in the so-called power position, moving the condyle within the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), forwardly away from the nerves and arteries found within the fossa or socket of the joint. In doing so, the mouth guards raise body muscular strength, provide greater endurance, and generally improve physical performance. However, such mouth guards tend to be complex in construction and very expensive.
There are two (2) categories of these prior art performance enhancing mouth guards. The first category is represented by industrially manufactured mouth guards designed according to each individual user's personal morphology. These mouth guards are pressed on imprints of the individual's upper and lower dental arches, and perfectly cover the dental crowns and the gum. Since they are modeled in a way that is wholly similar to a dental prosthesis, their design strictly corresponds to the athlete's anatomy. Their size is calibrated and they guarantee an excellent protective function, a high in-situ stability, and good comfort during their use. These mouth guards are extremely limited in use. The fact that prosthetic specialists are required to undergo a rather long procedure for their preparation, than unaffordable for most consumers.
The second category of prior art performance enhancing mouth guards to be noted are also industrially manufactured. Although they are more comfortable than standard generic mouth guards, they are not as comfortable as the pressed and imprinted types of mouth guards described above. However, they are far less expensive. These mouth guards are known as the boil and bite type, They are made of thermoplastic material which can be immersed in boiling water and self-fitted or shaped by the user in his/her mouth using his/her fingers, tongue, and by imparting biting pressure.
There have been several advancements over the years in these so-called boil and bite mouth guards. Generally, the advancements offer various means to overcome a lack of adequate separation and thickness. That is to say, a marked reduction of 70-92% in occlusal thickness occur when the user bites the mouth guard uncontrollably during use. Consequently, a noticeable reduction in protective capacity is experienced if for example an athlete is hit in the chin. Under such conditions, this insufficient thickness in the mouth guard construction between the user's upper and lower dental arches can be responsible for cranial and cerebral pressures with highly dangerous consequences.
Examples of advancements to overcome this problem include U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,832, which discloses an internal non-softening elastomeric framework embedded within the thermoplastic exterior mouth guard material which exterior softens at the boiling point of water. The mouth guard's internal elastomeric framework defines impact braces lying within the anatomical occlusal regions between the upper and lower posterior teeth, and serving to absorb, attenuate, and dissipate shock. The impact braces contain cushion pads having distinctly enlarged portions that cause the mandible or lower jaw to slide forwardly and slightly downwardly while one is self-fitting the mouth guard. The cushion pads' enlarged portions assure proper fitting of the mouth guard when softened, by prohibiting the user from biting too deeply into the soft material of the thermoplastic mouth guard. But, the enlarged portions were designed to be spherical in shape and to fit within the fossae or sockets of the bicuspid and molar teeth. These enlarged spherical portions have the drawback that precise placement is required. Thus, the mouth guard is difficult to adapt to the many anatomical variations in construction for a statistically sufficient number of individuals to be produced.
In 1999, Kilson disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,155, a dental appliance primarily for preventing bruxism or grinding of the teeth. It comprises a non-yielding material placed between the posterior teeth that would maintain the mouth open from one to five millimeters, preventing the mandible from being pulled into the condyler-fossae pressure position, so that clenching action of the jaw would not overburden the TMJ or drive condyles into the fossae. This dental appliance was constructed having composite occlusal posterior pads connected by a wire. The composite posterior pads had an impressionable layer interlocked above a somewhat impressionable layer. The impressionable layer became soft when boiled in water, while the somewhat impressionable layer became somewhat soft when boiled, thus accommodating interdigitation of the upper and lower teeth onto the pad. However, it was necessary to first make dentition impressions of the upper and lower teeth in wax prior to fitting the dental appliance. The appliance was laid on top of the imprint and the lateral separation between posterior occlusal pads could thereby be adjusted. This dentition step usually requires a dental professional.
In 1998, an adjustable customized dental appliance was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,761, having posterior pads which were accurately fitted using occlusal surfaces capable of varying from person to person. To complete the fitting of the appliance, a moldable material was inserted into a channel and the appliance inserted into the mouth for the wearer to bite down on, causing the teeth of the upper and lower jaw to occlude about the appliance. The lower teeth contacted a raised portion in the appliance, preventing the lower teeth from contacting a base portion and from causing an excess of moldable material from being forced out of said channel. The raised portions were conical in shape and slid along the occlusal surfaces until the raised portion fitted into a valley on the occlusal surface of the teeth. The appliance was then removed from the mouth and hardened by an appropriate method to produce the fitted appliance. This process, however, was unduly cumbersome and required a great deal of precision for the conical raised sections to fit precisely into valleys located on the occlusal surface of the teeth.
In 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,575 disclosed an adjustable customizable performance enhancing dental appliance. The appliance included an occlusal pad which when immersed in hot water had a top layer that became fairly impressionable while its bottom layer became somewhat impressionable to facilitate interdigitation of the upper and lower teeth. Optionally, the occlusal pads had cushions embedded therein with enlarged portions. The enlarged portions of the embedded cushions were arranged to be in the bicuspid or molar region of the posterior teeth and could take the form of spheres, vertical columns, or knobs.
In 1995, U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,619 disclosed a triple composite performance enhancing dental appliance which comprised a pair of occlusal posterior pads made of a triple composite material having a top layer of an impressionable material, an intermediate layer of a hard material, and a bottom layer of a somewhat impressionable material. In a preferred embodiment, protrusions were constructed of a somewhat impressionable material that extended from the bottom layer through the intermediate layer and the top layer. The protrusions served to strengthen the layers and lock them together. But, the protrusions also helped prevent the arch from contorting, and helped to maintain spacing between the teeth to help manipulate the lower jaw forwardly. The bottom layer was wedge-shaped, being thicker posteriorly and thinner anteriorly so as to force the condyle of the jaw to move forwardly and downwardly away from the auricular-temporalis nerve in the supra-tempora artery. This wedge shape placed the jaw into the “power position”, alleviating stress on the artery and nerve and increasing blood flow through the artery. The increased blood flow helps to alleviate headache, pain, and stress. But in order to work properly, the plates or bottom layer required tenuously centering adjustments between the teeth.
During 2003 and 2004, a number of U.S. patents issued to John D. Kittelsen disclosing a number of variations in mouth guards. Included among those patents were U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,505,626; 6,505,627; 6,505,628; 6,508,251; 6,510,853; 6,588,430; 6,675,806; 6,675,807; and 6,691,710. Each of these patents described variations in design aspects of a multi-layer composite mouth guard having a non-softenable framework, a palate arch and elastomeric traction pads for the posterior portion of the mouth guard. The traction pads contained upwardly projecting interlocking knob projections which passed through apertures and locked the bite plate and framework together as was needed to suitably assure mechanical interlock and included a radius portion to prevent shearing away of the knobs. The traction pads were designed to be wedge-shaped and larger at the posterior end than towards the anterior end. The projections or knobs of the traction pads indexed into the cusp or biting surfaces of the molars.
On Aug. 29, 2000, Mauro Turchetti disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,266 a mouth guard and an accompanying mouth piece. The mouth piece portion prevented oro-maxillofacial traumas. It was a separate instrument from the dental appliance. This mouth piece portion comprised transverse rod sections to temporarily assist in spacing the occlusal foundation of the mouth guard. Prior to using the mouth guard, the mouth piece and its rod sections were removed from the mouth guard, leaving a transverse hole in the occlusal section, on the right and left side, at the posterior end. As identified by Turchetti, dysfunctions of the temporomandibular articulation with articular and muscular repercussions were caused by a poor distribution of the occlusal load on the dental elements of the prior art mouth guards. However, the Turchetti mouth guard left a weakened point in the softenable material of the mouth guard even after being hardened. It would be a new found and long desired advancement in the art to obtain the desired occlusal spacing without the drawbacks and disadvantages of the occlusal pads and/or mouth piece portions of the prior art.